On Film Editing

9

Cutting Dialogue

Good drama^* is never an essay, a lecture, or a straight narrative. It is always cause and effect, action and reaction, even when no physical activity is involved. A good dialogue scene is rarely a straight interchange of declarative lines or overt plot exposition, no matter how brilliantly written; it contains conflict, surprises, “twists,” and “food for thought”—something for the actor, as well as the viewer, to ruminate.

In all good films it is essential that the characters grow or, to put it more accurately, develop, and such development is most effectively shown through their reactions either to physical crises or to verbal stimuli. These are the “moments of transition” which every actor and director looks for in the script’s ...